The Open Canada Podcast

Ruth speaks with The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, about Her Honour's distinguished history of bringing Ontario to the world, the climate crisis, elmployment equity, and her aspirations of engaging Canadians in an ever changing society.

On this episode, Ruth discusses with Sunil Johal, Professor of Public Policy and Society at the the University of Toronto & Vice-President Public Policy at the CSA Group, public policy implications of remote work and how we as a society can rebuild in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On this episode, Ruth discusses with Ambassador Catherine Stewart, Canada's Ambassador for Climate Change, on Canada's action plan for combatting the climate crisis. The Ambassador shares insights on the government's National Adaptation Strategy and the plan for engaging multi-level collaborators and actors on shared priorities for improving the wellbeing of Canadians, and those most impacted by climate change.

Ruth speaks with Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, on Canada's immigration statistics, focusing on a recent report by Statistics Canada on the dwindling uptake in citizenship by recent immigrants and newcomers to Canada. Daniel discusses how Canada can learn from its past successes on immigration to attract and retain newcomers to the country.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

Ruth speaks with a researcher who studies the way global crises intersect.

Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon is the executive director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University. His studies look at the "polycrisis," looking to find what common threads can be found across multiple serious global problems. Climate change, the war in Ukraine, and the European energy crisis all intersect in ways that fuel the food crisis on the African continent. Homer-Dixon's research seeks to unearth the mechanisms that underlie some of the biggest issues facing humanity, in the hope of finding global solutions.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

Meredith Preston McGhie is the secretary general for the Global Centre for Pluralism, and has worked for decades in Africa and Asia on the frontlines of diplomacy in some of the world's most troubled regions. She's looking to spread the principles of pluralism across the globe. Pluralism is, at its core, a respect for diversity within a society, though it can look different from place to place. Preston McGhie's work focuses on engaging with local communities to first find what pluralism means to people on the ground and then help that spirit blossom. The Centre is developing a Global Pluralism Monitor as a way to measure and thereby grow this important ethic around the world.

Visit OpenCanada.org for reflections on Canada's place in the world.

When he ran for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, Michael Ignatieff laid out a bold plan to place the promotion of democracy at the heart of Canadian foreign policy.

17 years later, Ignatieff outlines how his time in politics and his wariness of the many failed attempts at democratization that ended in flames. He now proposes instead that Canada and other democracies "tend our own gardens." What changed?

​In today's Open Canada podcast episode, hear his recent keynote address to a conference by the Canadian International Council, the Jarislowsky Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University and McGill University, How Can We Reverse Democratic Backsliding?